Notes by William W. Batstone

The bulk of the poem is the speech of a lena. This person, often called in translation a "procuress" or "madame," was any woman, from madame and brothel keeper to a nurse making introductions, who arranged meetings between men and women for her own profit. The figure is common in many literary genres from comedy and mime to elegy (see Propertius IV 5, Tibullus I 5, II 6, and Ovid Amores III 5), and, judging from laws relating to them, such persons apparently really existed. It is doubtful, however, that someone of Ovid's class and connections, or that any average youth at this time, would have relied on a lena, and the poem should probably be taken more as a literary fiction than as a reflection of Ovid's literal reality. It seems typical of these figures that they are old, alcoholic, greedy, and amoral and it is surely significant that Ovid places this poem at the center of Amores I. The lover overhears a lena's advice to his mistress. The lover himself is only indirectly characterized, and shows a certain gullibility in his acceptance of the lena's magical powers. It has been suggested that this self-delusion on the lover's part protects him from having to face the cynical and sordid motives upon which his sophisticated sexual game depends. By this interpretation, the lover himself is discredited by conveniently believing in the old woman's magic, while the old woman's advice accurately diagnoses and discredits the world of urban elegiac love. In its context in the Amores, this lena's speech recalls Ovid's own speech of advice in Amores I 4 and therefore makes the lena a special kind of praeceptor amoris, an anti-professor of love (from the man's point of view), or a professor of love to women. The speech also serves the ironic function of anticipating some of the tricks Corinna will play on her lover later.

2. Dipsas: The name, which means "thirsty," was the name of a small viper whose bite caused its victims a painful thirst.

4. Memnon's mother: Memnon, king of the Ethiopians, was considered to be the son of Aurora, the dawn, who in the morning rode her chariot up the eastern sky. In a poem relatively free of mythological allusion, this establishes the lover as self-conscious and sophisticated.

5. secret spells of Circe: Ancient magic was frequently, if not predominantly, used for amatory and aphrodisiac purposes. It was a fairly conventional theme in Roman poetry, and the powers here attributed to Dipsas are the standard ones.

8. poison: Traditionally, the secretions from the genitalia of a mare in heat were thought to be a love charm.

11. Believe it or not: The poet invites the reader to assess the credulity of this lover. Note below, "I believe what I hear," line 15.

20. eloquent: Dipsas is presented as a kind of immoral lawyer. The form of the speech may recall rhetorical exercises called suasoria, or speeches of persuasion. The speech has four parts: 23-34: take this rich lover; 35-68: take any rich lover; 69-104: how to take rich lovers; 105-108: final urgings.

29. Mars ascending: The common belief was that Mars, the red star, was malevolent, especially in regard to the plans of Venus, a planet who would be auspicious for lovers. This is no more learned or sophisticated than contemporary recourse to astrology. Other references to myth and history are standard and conventional.

39. Sabine girls: The Sabine women were often cited as examples of old-fashioned morality; Dipsas does not seem to accept the story without reservations.

41. Mars: The Roman god of boundaries became, naturally enough for a nation both expanding and protecting its boundaries, the god of war. In early Rome, the wars were against the Roman neighbors, the Sabines themselves.

42. Venus rules: Aeneas was the founder of the Latin people, who eventually established Rome. The logic seems to be that now, with Mars leading Roman youths to wage war at the ends of the earth, Venus controls Rome, and with Venus come many opportunities for promiscuity. Venus was also the founding goddess of the Julian family, of which Augustus was a member. See note on Amores I 1.29.

47. Penelope: The wife of Odysseus who waited twenty years for him to return from the Trojan War; she is generally cited as the model of fidelity. In Homer's Odyssey she deceives the suitors who have gathered at her home by weaving and unweaving a shroud and, when the disguised Odysseus finally arrives, she tells the suitors she will marry the one who can successfully string Odysseus's bow.

64. chalk-marked heel: At a slave auction, foreign slaves were distinguished by their chalked feet.

65. family busts: Roman aristocratic families kept on display the masks and busts of their illustrious ancestors.

68. from his own lover: A handsome young man, before puberty, was expected to have a male lover. The lena's suggestion is here pretty brutal: just as the young man becomes interested in girls, he must find a way to "wheedle" money from his male lover.

74. Isis: An Egyptian goddess whose worship was forbidden within the old city walls of Rome but who is mentioned often enough in love elegy because her worship entailed ritual abstinence from sexual intercourse.

86. Venus can fix it: It was a commonplace that lover's oaths meant nothing and that the gods did not punish their perjuries.

100. Via Sacra: On the Via Sacra, or "Sacred Way," one could find jewelry shops and prostitutes.

108. when I'm dead: Like most poets and lovers, and especially like Propertius, the lena closes her speech/poem and imagines her success validated at her grave.

This translation first appeared in Diane J. Rayor and William W. Batstone (edd.), Latin Lyric and Elegiac Poetry: An Anthology of New Translations. New York: Garland, 1995. It has been republished in Diotima with permission.

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